Advertise Your Local Business on Google Maps

How-To Advertise Your Local Business on Google Maps

If you are a local business, you’ll now be able to advertise on Google maps. Google’s keeping up with the times and is again shaking up local search advertising by giving you the option to now run ads right in Google maps. In the next few months you are going to have more options as it relates to targeting mobile buyers with Google. If you want to attract the local buyers closest to making a purchase decision via mobile search than read on.

More and more of your prospects are using a mobile device to start their search process for a local business than ever before and Google is making moves to give advertisers more options to get in front of them.

Welcome to the next generation of local search my friends. The days of simple pay-per-click advertising are going away and those stuck in cookie cutter setups are going to have some catching up to do. You’re about to have many more choices over the next few years as it relates to targeting prospects by behavior, time and by location. I predict this is one of many rollouts Google has in store for local advertisers giving you many more options to develop a targeting strategy.

Whether you own a physical location or travel to your local customers you’re now in a position to expand your search audience and drive in more local traffic. And after reading the following trends and facts, I’m sure you will agree these types of searchers are most likely to represent your hottest leads and opportunities:

One-Third of all Google search is tied to a specific location and this is growing. Examples would include “Boston Laser Eye Surgeon,” “Los Angeles Electrician,” or “Memphis Plumber.”

Location related searches have been growing 50 percent faster than mobile searches overall in the past year. This means more of your qualified prospects are conditioned to search with a local modified search term and are actively seeking out local businesses in their area. Knowing this fact will give you an advantage as you start to develop your ad copy strategy – being the local go-to choice is a huge selling point over competitors who aren’t promoting their local ties to the area.

Millions of apps are using the Google Maps API to power their mapping technology, so your ads will appear inside of your prospects’ favorite apps.

And according to Google, 3 out of 4 people who search for something nearby using their smartphone end up in some sort of sales cycle within one day. Close to 30% of those searches result in a purchase.

New Google Advertising Features

Now this new advertising feature is rolling out slowly and certain advertisers already have access as Google is currently beta testing. Here’s what the workflow looks like:

When a prospect searches on desktop or mobile they’ll have to click on “more places” to see your ad:

In order for your ad to appear in the maps section you need to do some setup work.

First you want to make sure you have a confirmed Google My Business account. You can’t run ads on Google maps without a confirmed profile.

You can go to the Ad Extensions section within your Google AdWords account and link your Google My Business location.

It’s going to take 10-24 hours for your profile to link into Google AdWords. Another benefit to linking your Google My Business listing to your AdWords account is you can now display your Google reviews, helping you increase your conversion.

Once connected you want to configure your integration by telling AdWords how you would like your location extensions to appear. You can pick and choose the campaigns and adgroups where you would like your location data to be displayed. Keep in mind you, don’t want to blanket this feature across all of your campaigns if you service a large radius because some buyers might be turned off that you’re 30 miles away for example. Here’s what the configuration interface looks like:

Once configured – your standard ad copy will now have your location information along with information directly from Google My Business – like hours of operation or reviews for example:

Desktop Search Ads Displaying Location Extensions

Mobile Search Ads Displaying Location Extensions

On a mobile device search you’ll notice your location information is displayed along with directions and a click to call phone icon. A quick tip here – when setting up your Google My Business profile you have the option to designate what kind of business you are – a business with a physical location or a business that travels to a person’s home. You want to make sure you have the right designation to avoid giving driving directions to a location where you don’t want walk-in traffic.

On Google Maps you’ll notice the advertisement is obviously displayed in purple with the word “AD,” in addition to a purple placeholder on the map.

Google Maps Advertising Displaying Your Location

When you drill into the map placeholder, the search ad is displayed.

And when you click on the ad you’ll notice how all of the business information appears in the panel.

Google will be releasing new map ad formats and features that are designed to drive more traffic via Google map searches. Right now the promoted pins are search ads but Google is considering working in display or graphic ads to the searcher – providing a personalized experience.

The new local map search ads will appear within the Google Maps app, on the Google Maps mobile, desktop, and tablet sites and on Google.com expanded maps results.

The ads will be placed over your competitors listings and will be presented as purple in the top spot above the organic results, there will be a maximum of 2 ads displayed at the top of the map search results.

The advertising cost structure falls under the normal pay-per-click system. Advertisers will be charged for clicks that include

Get location details

Get directions

Click to call

For more information about advertising in Google maps please contact us.